


Mermaids' Shrine

by AGreekDemigod



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam doesn't appear until the end, Adam's last name here is Wright, Adashi Month 2019, Admiral Adam (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Pirate, Captain Shiro (Voltron), Demisexual Shiro (Voltron), Denial of Feelings, Feelings Realization, Gen, Illusions, Mermaid Nyma, Nyma is a mermaid, Pirate Shiro (Voltron), The whole voltron crew are pirates, and they were rivals, but the adashi is clear, through illusions but it is something at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 03:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20284999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGreekDemigod/pseuds/AGreekDemigod
Summary: “I’m looking for an object, one that you have in your hands, according to my sources. It belonged to a young man. A scientist or maybe a writer. The intellectual type."”She acted as if he hadn’t spoken. Getting closer, closer."It is such a shame you don’t fall for us, you are one of the few ones I assure you. A man who does not follow his lust when he sees a pretty creature. The pirate that can only feel desire towards a lover."She hummed again, less than a meter away now, her belly rubbing the soft rocks of the edge of the water, her arm reaching for him, centimeters away from his thigh. "The captain that has never been in love, or have you?"____Shiro has a mission to complete but it is difficult to negotiate with a monster, specially when they can look as whoever they want. Whoever he wants.





	Mermaids' Shrine

**Author's Note:**

> Made for the Adashi Month's day 9: Pirate AU! Go to @AdashiMonth on twitter to see more submissions of amazing writers and artists! 
> 
> Note: I'm gonna be honest here, this work is an extra of a whole as adashi pirate au I'm planning rn but that I haven't posted yet.  
It will take some time to write the whole fic but this shall be enough for now. Since this is an extra scene, it can be read like an stand-alone and I've tried to put as much information as possible to not make it confusing but not all to not give away much.  
Hopefully it is understandable :)  
(All the thanks in the world for my beta, because shes amazing and i love her)

Shiro coughed in discomfort, the air humid and heavy on his lungs as he made his way into the cave, his boots making squelching noises against the ground, wet by the drops of water that fell off the stalactites. 

Calm as it was, a small pond hidden at the end of a cavern, it was far from being peaceful and Shiro did not let his guard drop, an attitude that had allowed him to get out alive all the other times he visited before. The smell of death and lies that hung in the cavern ruined the charm that it could have possibly had in a different situation.

Something moved in the stream that connected the sea and the pond, circles of water and a wet splash created by a fish submerging, a tail hiding the moment Shiro looked back. His fingers brushed the sheath of his sword, a movement unperceivable but not unnecessary. Wise, even if coming there hadn’t been at all.

She came out slowly, first the top of her blonde hair, then her purple eyes, her eyes smiling before her lips did. One does not show their fangs if they don’t want to scare their prey.

"Oh, but it is you again, Captain." Her voice was soft, melodic, a lullaby that echoed in the rocks, powerful enough to make crews sink their ships willingly. "You really like to play with us, don’t you? Navigating through our waters, looking right at our faces before turning yours.”

She looked so young, exactly as the first time they had encountered, many years ago. Of her kind, he didn’t seem lucky enough to completely avoid, quite the contrary, his rejection seemed only encourage them. 

“Ignoring us." Nyma groaned. "Leaving us so hungry."

Two fingers were around his sheath now, the grip on his sword not hesitating for a moment, nor his focus. He had business there.

"It has been a while, Nyma,” he said, and the mermaid whimpered at the mention of her name, her smile widened. Still no teeth. “and I wished it had been longer. I am here to ask for a favour."

"A favour you say," She was halfway out of the water now, all the way to her hips, her tail carefully hidden. She moved towards him, like a snake before attacking, slowly and without blinking, her voice being the sleighbell of her lies. "For what reason? You are a pirate. You don't ask, you take." 

She hummed a bit, almost casually, her face the reflection of innocence as she swam a bit closer. It was test, one that Shiro found easy to fail.

She looked slightly disappointed. "You don’t seem to have changed. I had hoped so, after hearing the rumours of your recent alliance with that admiral. It is quite the juicy gossip around here and will probably get more popular as days pass." 

Shiro took the words as they were: a warning. If the rumour about his unofficial alliance with the Admiral Wright had travelled all the way to the sea of mermaids then it shouldn’t take much for the news to get to the ears of a galran sailor, and then it was a matter of time until Zarkon knew. His mission there seemed even more critical knowing that.

“I’m looking for an object, one that you have in your hands, according to my sources. It belonged to a young man. A scientist or maybe a writer. The intellectual type.”

She acted as if he hadn’t spoken. Getting closer, closer.

"It is such a shame you don’t fall for us, you are one of the few ones I assure you. A man who does not follow his lust when he sees a pretty creature. The pirate that can only feel desire towards a lover." 

She hummed again, less than a meter away now, her belly rubbing the soft rocks of the edge of the water, her arm reaching for him, centimeters away from his thigh. "The captain that has never been in love, or have you?"

The air whistled when Shiro cut through it with his sword. The mermaid whined in pain, holding her wounded arm against her chest, blue plasma tracing a way down her pearl skin where the sword had brushed her.

She hissed at him, her fangs sharp as knives, made to tear flesh apart. A thing you would expect more in a shark than in a young maiden.

"I’m looking for a clock, the pocket kind. Silver, but with gold gears. The numbers are in roman."

Just like her apathy had come so did it fade away. She gave him another smile with no teeth, lips pink as roses closed tightly together. “There are many like those in the depths.” she said, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Shiro the harsh erge her mellow voice carried now.

“It had a figure carved on its exterior, a lion with a tiny diamond on its forehead."

"You can’t offer me anything worthy of it except your life, and I don’t think this deal will make much sense for you then.”

It was to be expected but Shiro didn’t let that discourage him. With an nonchalant movement, he unpinned the brooch on his coat, holding it carefully under the light that filtered through the holes on the ceiling, so the glint of the jewels caught the mermaid’s attention. It was a fascinating piece, so beautifully crafted that Shiro couldn’t helped but take it from the coat of a defeated opponent. Two lilies made with orange zaphire and held together by a golden loop, an expensive piece obviously made by commission.

"I know your kind like objects with residual emotions on it. Years must have made the clock’s fade away, so I’m offering you another one. Something personal from my own collection."

She bit the bait. The water waved when Nyma disappeared and hadn’t calmed down when she came back, not even bothering to hide her row of fangs now, ecstatic as she was.

In her hand she clasped the pocket clock, silver with gold gears, roman numbers and a lion on its case, perfectly matching Shiro’s description.

Shiro extended his arms, his left palm up on the air while he held the brooch tight in his right one. A silent request to trade them at the same time.

Nyma’s eyes lost their spark for a second and an expression similar to hesitation and sadness crossed her features before being replaced by her usual excited expression. She dropped the lock on Shiro’s extended palm, almost as if it burnt her. Her happy shriek echoed loudly against the cavern's walls, as Shiro let the brooch fall on her quick hands.

The reaction was immediate: her body shivering slightly as she closed her eyes in satisfaction. When she opened them, they were grey, then green, then brown. 

"So you are," she whispered. 

Shiro stiffened, his heart beating furiously in his chest when he noticed his mistake. It shouldn’t have mattered to give her that brooch, having it for less than a fortnight, not enough to replace its formers owners feeling with his yet. 

But if it had...

"Tell me about him." Nyma asked and Shiro felt the cold sweat on the back of his neck, fear crawling up his spine.

He didn’t show it though, not even when the face in front of him changed to one he knew too well, being that it was a current guest on his ship. "Didn't rumours tell you enough?"

"Not really." Nyma smiles as she admired her reflection in the water, touching the caramel strands of her, no,  _ his _ hair, between her fingers. "They didn’t tell me he was so pretty."

Shiro noticed it then, forms moving in the water, probably alerted by Nyma’s cry, closing the distance like sharks circling a prey.

The mermaids looked at him with hunger, their heads barely above the water, enough for their mouth to open and sing sweetly to the sailors. A song specially dedicated to him with Nyma in the lead, in a body that didn’t belong to her. 

The echo was maddening, visions making his eyes blurry, until the cave was no longer a cave and the sound of the drops falling were replaced by the tone of an harp. 

The walls turned golden, white marble under his feet, traces of gold and crystal wherever he looked. It took one blink for Shiro to find himself in the center of a ballroom, its opulence mocking his status. A place no pirate would ever get invited into.

_ What we wish, what we desire.  _ A voice whispered, faintly enough to disappear in the music, people around him following an orchestrated dance, circling around him, too concentrated in their own stories, their own lives.

And then a hand had touched Shiro’s shoulder, brown eyes meeting his under the light of the chandelier.

_ Men had told each other to resist, yet unable to follow such simple advice. _

His uniform was slightly different, his blue coat was now red, golden medals and strings decorating his shoulders and chest. 

Adam smiled, his right hand still on his shoulder as he took Shiro’s hand in his left hand, fingers intertwining almost automatically, his kaleidoscopic eyes ribetted in gold and a pair of pendants hanging from his right ear, an accessory that didn’t match the rest of his elegant outfit.

Adam guided him across the dance hall, swinging side to side slowly, their bodies so close in their embrace that they could feel each other’s breaths on their skin. Adam’ lips brushed the lobe of his ear, his fingers reaching from his shoulder to the skin of his neck, soft fingers caressing the edge of his shirt before going up. The pendants were no more.

_ Because once your heart has something it desires, it belongs to us. _

The roar that came soon after was deafening, Shiro’s attention snapping out of the daydream as Adam pulled back his burdened fingers, the necklace around Shiro’s neck shining where the contact has been made.

When Shiro blinked again in front of him there was no ballroom and neither was Adam, but instead the face of a monster with sinister eyes and claws instead of hands, scaly blue skin covering it from the tip of her claws to the fins of her tail.

Hate shined in Nyma's eyes as she hissed at him.

The situation was worse than he thought. With horrifying shock Shiro realised that in his stupor he had walked right into the middle of the pond and that he was surrounded now by a bunch of beasts hungry for blood, only seconds away from having his heart ripped off his chest.

He would have been dead if Black hadn't intervened , the spirit of the lion roaring with a fury that make the mermaids back off. It hadn’t been enough to made them left him alone entirely, but it had bought him a few seconds, enough for Shiro to shake off any somnolence and try to get out of the water. 

They reacted quickly, as expected, but Shiro did too, swinging almost instinctively his blade until half of his body was out, ignoring the pain on his members as they tried to pull him down again. Claws and teeth like knives bit the flesh of his legs and Shiro hissed before stabbing the water, moving barely a meter before they got him again. It was a battle with no end, and Shiro hoped his crew was coming as fast they could, because with every second that passed the water turned more and more red and the mermaids more and more violent.

One held Shiro by the arm and Shiro heard the skin break under her claws, not bothering in looking as he finally got out, getting rid of the grip with the edge of his sword. 

In normal circumstances, being out of the water would have made a difference, it could mean even a victory, but the mermaids were drunk in their lust for blood and felt empowered by the magic filling the air. They crawled after him unbothered by Shiro's sword and were almost above him when the floor of the cavern shook and an explosion of sand and dust blurred his vision, pieces of rock falling everywhere. A cannon.

They were a vision, three figures illuminated by the moonlight, entering through the hole that had just opened in one of the walls, swords on air as their eyes shined with determination, ready to kick ass and take names.

“Holy fucking shit,” cursed Adam, and Shiro couldn’t hold back the grin that extended across his face when those eyes turned to look at him, turning grey with annoyance as he took note of his shreded clothes and bleeding injuries. “You said you had everything under control, Shirogane.”

“I do, ” Shiro said and his legs almost gave up in relief when Keith put an arm around his waist to stop him from falling over, the hisses of the mermaids increasing in the background as Pidge kept them away for their captain. Shiro couldn’t stop smiling. “I have the clock.” 

He knew Adam hadn’t heard him, his ears were stoppered up to prevent falling for the mermaid’s enchantment, but by the look he gave him, one would have thought that he did. 

Shiro held that gaze for a few seconds before Adam turned to face the enemy and Shiro finally gave up to follow Keith’s lead out of the shrine. 

Nyma’s words were clear in his mind, an echo of a thought he had been ignoring for some time and that had almost lead him to his fall that night. It was his responsibility as a captain to sort it out, for the simple reason that he just wouldn't risk his crew for his own pride. 

With one loud shriek, the last mermaid submerged into the water to run away from Adam and Pidge, who were both breathless and still wielding their swords in case of a surprise attack.The smiles they shared then, when it was obvious there wasn’t going to be one anytime soon, were triumphant ones. The kind that is shared between newfound comrades and crew members. 

And there it was, another rock to put on the pile: because at some point in the last two weeks, Adam had become a part of the crew, earning their trust and respect as their superior after Shiro, and their loyalty and affection as a friend. 

Shiro sighed when he saw the silhouette of the Black lion, its cannon still fuming after the attack to the Mermaids’ Shrine, and he imagined the activity going on up there, his crew in position to sail at any given moment, waiting for their members to get inside and for their captain to give the order.

It was time to put the cards on the board and establish the rules of the game, because he was tired of guessing them himself. His and Adam’s relationship needed to change, and for better or worse, Shiro was the one taking the first step, willing to search for a neutral area they could both stand on.

He just hopped Adam accepted it as well. 

**Author's Note:**

> my favourite Shiro headcannon is that he's a dumbass when it comes to relationships and romantic feelings lmao  
even after all of this he isn't planning on asking Adam out but just 'talk with him and try to be friends'. The dumbassery. Anyways, thanks for reading!


End file.
